"O ye who believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do." [Al-maeda ,8]

It has now been reported through media and reports are also with the government that the flogging video which provided the justification of indiscriminate bombings and extra-judicial killings in Swat was fake.People are blaming NGOs but we need to know all this is not possible without the support of government agencies. In fact his whole war on terror is fake. This weapon-blood-dollar game is fake, they are playing with our fears, cahsing our prejudices and social class differences to control our lives.

Army and so called liberals(in fact they are real fascists) don’t want to end this war because of their temporary benefits and satisfaction of their prejudices. They don’t realize or don’t want to realize that this game is setting some real wrong principles which can dangerous for them.
If indiscriminate bombings are right of tribal people then how can we protest if someone does the same on our so called civil society. Its an issue of setting wrong principles.

We need to come out of thie war against humanity,peace and justice wrongly named war against terror. It is destroying our country and social fabric, we need to think above our prejudices and short term benefits.

PESHAWAR: A resident of Swat, who claims to have prepared the fake video of flogging of a girl in Swat, has termed it drama and revealed that he received Rs0.5 million for doing so before the launch of military operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’.

Before the operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’, an NGO financed preparation of fake video of flogging in which they portrayed the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members flogging a woman. The provincial government and Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed ordered investigations and sought report from the authorities concerned.

After the successful operation in Malakand division, the law-enforcement agencies had arrested the children who were present in the video while a resident of Swat was apprehended by Kohat administration. The children and the arrested man revealed that the video was fake and said that it was made on the demand of Islamabad-based NGO which provided him Rs0.5 million.

Sources revealed that woman who was flogged in the video was also arrested and she revealed that she had received Rs0.1 million while Rs50,000 were given to each child. Sources said that the NGO produced the video to defame the country’s integrity and respect.

Sources stated that the law-enforcement agencies dispatched the report about the arrests of the culprits and proposed action against the NGO. They also said that the security agencies also apprehended the TTP workers who flogged the people.

At last someone from politicians finally volunteered for the cause of peace in Pakistan. We cannot expect any good from parliamentarians, government, army or agencies to work for the cause of peace because it will not serve their greed and lust for power.

People like Imran Khan , other leaders from PTI and Jamat e Islami,Ulemas who are trusted by tribesmen and other religious and political figures need to make a joint effort for this cause and this should be backed by the trust of Pakistani people and government.

Army and agencies shouldn’t try to deceive the people this time as they have already created a huge mess just for dollars and to serve their imperialist masters.

We support this initiative from Imran Khan and demand the government and urge the people to honestly support it.

We need to get out of this war against humanity and peace, we are already too late and cannot afford more damage.

We oppose the killings of innocent people in army actions, suicide bombings or in any other way.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, who on Wednesday offered his services and even showed the willingness to go to the tribal areas to get the mounting terrorism issue resolved through political dialogue, got encouraging response from the Taliban side. His appeal, however, seems to have fallen on the governmentís deaf ears.

The cricket hero-turned-social worker, Imran Khan, told The News on Thursday that after his Wednesday’s press conference, he was contacted by some important Taliban groups, who posed their full confidence in him for political solution of the problem. Khan said that no one from the government side contacted him though.

Imran Khan on Wednesday volunteered to mediate between the government and the Taliban leadership to bring peace, claiming that the menace of terrorism was bound to grow because of the military operation in South Waziristan and in the absence of a political solution.

In his press conference, he had said that if the government gave him the mandate, he was willing to travel to the tribal areas and elsewhere to negotiate peace. His only pre-condition to mediation between the two sides was that the government would not let the US-pressure to ruin his peace efforts like the past.

While some people believe the government has no political strategy to address the issue and is entirely dependent on the military operation that has allegedly aggravated the problem, Imran has taken a bold step amidst great chances that he would be dubbed pro-Taliban by confused Pakistanis and arrogant foreigners.

Imran Khan got an encouraging reaction from some Taliban leaders. Khan said that he was now even considering convening an all parties conference (APC) on the issue. Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman Group) are also opposed to the military operation and seek a political solution to the problem by revisiting Pakistanís policy on the US war on terror, formulating an independent foreign policy and bringing an immediate halt to the military operation in the tribal areas, particularly South Waziristan.

Although, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is not appearing in the media these days, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Professor Munawar Hasan has become vocal in his opposition to the military operation. Interestingly, the PML-N is also not supportive of the present military operation but it lacks the guts to public its demand a political solution to terrorism. However, the party is not making its views public amid reports that it does not want to irritate Washington that is today quite pleased with the party and its top leadership.

In this situation, Imran Khanís daring initiative to do what others are shy to do, is expected to bring pressure on all other pro-dialogue parties, including the PML-N, the JI and the JUI(F) to sit together and chalk out a strategy where the government could be pressurised to save its innocents, whether in the tribal areas or in settled areas of Pakistan from being killed.

Recent attack in the Parade Lane mosque Rawalpindi which is one of the most secured areas of the country taking lives of dozens of people and then the drone attack by USA forces in our northern part of country taking lives of 50 people are calling for a serious revision of our foreign and security policies especially with respect to this American lead war against humanity and peace or so called war against terror.

Whether innocent people are dying in drone attacks, military operations or suicide bombings the historical fact is they don’t add to the cause of peace but result in more terrorist activities which lead to more military operations and so this vicious cycle of death and fear is going on and on with no real directions.

We don’t see any real measures for peace except for lies and false claims by our government and security institutions that are not willing to come out of this weapon-blood-dollar game because of their personal greed and foreign self-imposed pressure.

Another thing which our government does is to gather ‘Ulemas’ and religious scholars to give joint statements or ‘Fatwas’ against the suicide bombings and to declare these acts against the teachings of Islam which is true and factual but it has not proved worthy enough to stop these attacks and the prime reason is that this is not a matter of religion or personal faith.

Resistance in Afghanistan is surely backed by religious and nationalist sentiments as their land is occupied by foreign imperialist powers but in case of Pakistan it is due to our imperialist sponsored security and foreign policy backed by our unjust and cruel actions against our own people that we are seeing one of the most terrible times of our history where life seems to have no value.

The main contributor to this mess was surely Musharraf and his ruling junta of that time which for their lust for power, greed of wealth and so called international stature put Pakistan into a great mess that nation is finding itself into an apparent hopeless condition.

The Musharraf government’s submissive policies in front of America and allies, giving permission to foreign security agencies to operate in Pakistan, illegal abduction and selling of Pakistanis and others without any legal procedure and protecting the basic human rights, extra judicial killings to please foreign powers, merciless bombings of civilian areas in the name of hunting down few terrorists, creating sectarian and ethnic tension among masses to extend his rule and this baseless war, giving no respect to country laws and creating a sense of deprivation of rights and alienation among the people living in tribal areas and Baluchistan all have summed up to this mess.

Current elected government and military establishment are no different in their overall strategy and policies except for few cosmetic changes which are mainly made to run this war effectively. Our role has become a client state and our army is fighting like a deadly mercenary force killing its own people. If someone criticizes the war or protests against the violation of national sovereignty then he or she becomes eligible for the titles of extremist, fundamentalist, Taliban supporter or even traitor.

Media machinery is also being utilized by establishment to gather support for this and they are especially targeting the youth by promoting propaganda specialists and so called think tanks to spread war hysteria in the name of patriotism and nationalism and also glorifying the security institutions and their role in country affairs.

This seems to be a never ending game due to our self destructive policies which has gone worse with the involvement of foreign player’s contribution and even for that I say we have provided them the ground to play evil.

We seriously need to think our way out of this war if we want to survive as a nation and exist on the map as an independent state of this world for this we need to think and act as an honest, just and freedom loving nation putting everyone on board. We need to bring everyone on table with sincerity not in the hypocritical manner our security agencies did previously and these talks also need to include those people we are killing in Waziristan, Sawat, Bajaur and elsewhere.

We also need to compensate the losses of the victims of military actions and provide justice to the people who suffered by the actions of our governments and military by putting the responsible figures of this mess like Musharraf in front of the system of justice as without it all confidence building measures will be considered as words of mouth.

May Allah show us the right path and give peace to the innocent souls of people who lost their lives in this war.

If we need a revolution or something , we need genuine thinkers and visionaries not so called hakims or so called spiritualists who copy the ideas re-mold them into their dirty deceptive agenda and use the names and work of great genuine people like Iqbal, Jinnah etc for their bogus agenda. I am seeing lots of good people following these deceivers just in the name of nationalism, patriotism etc .
My suggestion is to use your free mind and sense of justice so that you don’t get misguided by these so called nationalists.

—————————————————————————————-

Some of my friends on these views of mine against the war think that I support the terrorists for them I need to say:

Opposing the war doesn’t mean supporting the terrorists.

I consider both army and the suicide bombers or terrorists who are killing the innocent civilians as destroyers of peace and don’t find their actions as just.

The problem is when I oppose the war the “nationalists” think as if I am supporting the
terrorists in fact I am opposing the mess and pointing out to destroy the root cause.

I consider prime responsible for this mess are army and government and reason is they
brought an unwanted war on our land and people.

I oppose the killings of innocent civilians in suicide bombs and by army/air force bombings
but again I consider prime responsibility goes to the country institutions because they (means their key heads rest are just blind followers) created the mess for dollars and this mess has created terrorism.

It was army and government who breached the agreement made by Jinnah for dollars.

It was again army and government with allied forces in Afghanistan with their missile attacks and drone attacks destroyed three peace deals after 2004 .
Before this operation ISPR and Information ministry deliberately tried to mold the facts as if the agreements were broken by tribes but even former army generals like Asad Durrani rejected these claims.
Try to find out how “Neik Muhammad” got killed after the peace deal by USA missile attack and then look at the government reaction of owning it.

The terrorist activities can mainly be categorized as:

1) Revenge of the innocent killings by our forces here and Allied forces in Afghanistan.
Also our support in the form of giving supply route to NATO supplies and Drone attacks are playing it’s part as well.
2) Revenge and anger exploited by enemies of Pakistan but its our fault we are providing them the ground to play with.
3) Attacks like on Shariah academy,Peshawar and Benazir were done by players of weapon-blood-dollar game which includes enemies of Pakistan who want us to remain engaged in the war (so called allies in the so called war against terror) and their pets in our own ranks (politicians, military and civil establishment etc).

After the blast which killed Benazir Bhutto the place and all the evidence was washed within hours and a drama was created to link it with tribal situation which never got proved.
My question is who was being protected here?

4) Not to forget the ethnic and sectarian cards which Musharraf government played with their allied parties and groups to control power, they have also contributed a lot to this mess.

My questions are:

Can we support innocent killings in the name of nationalism?
Can we support injustice in the name of patriotism?
And after doing that can we expect peace?

Faiz Ahmed Faiz wrote this when he returned from a visit of Dhaka after East Pakistan Separation and Bangladesh Independence. I hope we will learn from this and things will not be repeated in our tribal areas and Baluchistan…. I hope.

That’s what we call leadership. Quaid e Azam really wisely dealt with the tribe and respected their independence and love for Islam and their customs unlike today’s leadership which has brought us in a war situation with our own tribal people just for dollars.

Tribes trusted Jinnah because he was a man of his words and honor unlike the so called leaders like Zardari,Musharraf,Kiyani,Nawaz and likes.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah -Address to the Tribal Jirga at Government House, Peshawar on 17th April, 1948

I have been looking forward since long to meet you, representatives of the Tribes of the North-West Frontier, and it has given me very great pleasure indeed to have met you here today. I am sorry I have not been able to visit you in your own part of the country, but I hope to be able to do so sometime in the future.

I thank you for you’re welcome to me and for the kind personal references you have made about me. Whatever I have done, I did as a servant of Islam, and only tried to perform my duty and made every possible contribution within my power to help our nation. It has been my constant endeavour to try to bring about unity among Mussalmans, and I hope that in the great task of reconstruction and building up Great and Glorious Pakistan, that is ahead of us, you realize that solidarity is now more essential than it ever was for achieving Pakistan, which by the Grace of God we have already done. I am sure that I shall have your fullest support in this mission. I want every Mussalman to do his utmost and help me and support me in creating complete solidarity among the Mussalmans, and I am confident that you will not lag behind any other individual or part of Pakistan. We Mussalmans believe in one God, one book–the Holy Quran–and one Prophet. So we must stand united as one Nation. You know the old saying that in unity lies strength united we stand, divided we fall.

I am glad to note that you have pledged your loyalty to Pakistan, and that you will help Pakistan with all your resources and ability. I appreciate this solemn declaration made by you today. I am fully aware of the part that you have already played in the establishment of Pakistan, and I am thankful to you for all the sympathy and support you gave me in my struggle and fight for the establishment of Pakistan. Keeping in view your loyalty, help, assurances and declarations we ordered, as you know, the withdrawal of troops from Waziristan as a concrete and definite gesture on our part–that we treat you with absolute confidence and trust you as our Muslim brethren across the border. I am glad that there is full realization on your part that now the position is basically different. It is no longer a foreign Government as it was, but it is now a Muslim government and Muslim rule that holds the reigns of this great independent sovereign State of Pakistan. It is now the duty of every Mussalman, yours and mine, and every Pakistani to see that the State, which we have established, is strengthened in every department of life and made prosperous and happy for all, especially the poor and the needy.

Pakistan has no desire to unduly interfere with your internal freedom. On the contrary; Pakistan wants to help you and make you, as far as it lies in our power, self-reliant and self-sufficient and help in your educational, social and economic uplift, and not be left as you are dependent on annual doles, as has been the practice hitherto which meant that at the end of the year you were no better off than beggars asking for allowances, if possible a little more. We want to put you on your legs as self-respecting citizens who have the opportunities of fully developing and producing what is best in you and your land. You know that the Frontier Province is a deficit province, but that does not trouble us so much. Pakistan will not hesitate to go out of its way to give every possible help–financial and otherwise–to build up the economic and social life of our tribal brethren across the border.

I agree with you that education is absolutely essential, and I am glad that you appreciate the value of it. It will certainly be my constant solicitude and indeed that of my Government to try to help you to educate your children and with your co-operation and help we may very soon succeed in making a great progress in this direction.

Your desire for entering the Pakistan Service in the Civil and Military will receive my full consideration and that of my Government, and I hope that some progress would be made in this direction also without unnecessary delay.

You have also expressed your desire that the benefit, such as your allowances and khassadari, that you have had in the past and are receiving, should continue. Neither my Government nor I have any desire to modify the existing arrangements except, in consultation with you, so long as you remain loyal and faithful to Pakistan.

I know there has been scarcity of food grains, cloth, and sugar. You must realize that we have all been passing through difficult times all over the world and Pakistan is no exception; indeed the whole world is facing hardships, but we are not unmindful of this problem, and we are endeavoring to the utmost of our capacity, with special care for Baluchistan and the Frontier Province, and you will not be neglected in. this respect. We will do our utmost to see that essential commodities reach you in time and in reasonably sufficient quantities. I am hoping and looking forward to the time when more normal conditions may present themselves to us, so that we may be able to live with more ease and comfort in the way of food, clothing, housing and all the necessities of life.

In the end, I warmly thank you for the wholehearted and unstinted declaration of your pledge and your assurances to support Pakistan, so that it may reach the pinnacle of glories of Islam and become a great and mighty nation among other nations of the world.

A sensible article as far as the overall idea is concerned with some real good points raised.

The writer has explained what motivates people to get ready for suicide bombings.

Though in many cases like the killing of Benazir Bhutto or recent attacks on International Islamic University and many others in which the chances of the involvement by CIA,RAW or even Pakistani Security agencies are more and 9/11 is seen as an inside job but still the overall context of the article remains quite valid.
————————————————————————————-What creates this hate?

Dissenting note

Friday, October 23, 2009
Dr Masooda Bano

The rise in suicide attacks in the past three weeks have left the nation shocked. The GHQ as well as ordinary institutions such as the International Islamic University (IIU) have been attacked. These attacks are making the government commit to starting even heavy military operations in Waziristan. But this increased number of suicide attacks needs to also raise the question why have some Pakistanis come to hate the rest so much that they are willing to take such extreme measures.

In the immediate aftermath of September 11, one dominant outcry in the US was that “Why have they come to hate us so much?” The question was never fully answered as the Bush administration soon moved into a militarist mode finding and attacking targets overseas. However, Pakistan cannot afford such a luxury because it is having to face the consequences of such a militarist approach on its own soil. There is thus the critical need to understand why some Pakistanis could be driven to a level of hatred that can result in making deadly attacks on other ordinary Pakistanis, such as the innocent students of IIU who so unfortunately died in the recent attack.

Those who try to attribute religious indoctrination as the prime basis of these suicide attacks have to provide better evidence to support such simplistic claims. Academic research on suicide missions conducted in either secular or religious contexts does not support the claim that suicide missions are ever driven purely by an ideological impulse. In fact, the basis of such a violent expression are often very political in nature, a religious or secular ideology only help sustain the momentum of the recruits after they have joined the struggle due to a feeling a sense of gross political injustice. To say that the militants in Pakistan are driven by some religious indoctrination where people are taught to hate others is too simplistic a solution. It helps ignore the more complex and demanding question that why are so many Pakistanis is a state of mind where they are willing to gather around the radical rhetoric and give up their own lives as well as taking life of other innocent people.

The answer to this is complex but one factor that could lead people to such extreme hate is the element of revenge. Those who suffer from the unjust excesses of the state end up retaliating in extreme ways because they find that there are no legal mechanisms left to secure justice. Palestinians pitted against Israel have faced that problem for long. I have not been to Swat during the period of military confrontation, nor I have been to Waziristan but I was closely engaged in studying the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafza when it was staging the resistance and when it was under siege by the military. The state in this case was definitely an unjust aggressor. There was simply no need for the military operation that resulted in death of at the least 100 students.

The resist was triggered by some legitimate concerns about Pakistani military operations in the tribal belts and other issues such as that of the ‘missing people.’ It started moving in other directions, such as securing public piety, and of course needed to be curtailed. However, it could have been curtailed through a dialogue and through giving some concessions rather than opting for a full military operation. If today some relatives of students who died in those military operations had become recruits for such suicide attacks that are taking place in Pakistan, one won’t be surprised. Such gross level of injustice committed by a state is often not absorbed easily by those harmed by it.

What we have to remember if we want to find a solution to this problem that no one wants to give up his or her life for nothing. The promises of rewards in the other world could be tempting. To give up life in this world for promises of the rewards in the other is too extreme a measure, which is never just a product of search for heavenly rewards. After all, less costly measures, such as Haj, Hifz, fasting, khairat promise generous heavenly rewards too. There have to be actual political factors that are making people go to such extremes. Those who all along asked for making this “US-led war” our war now need to answer that what have we benefited from making it our war. If these are ordinary Pakistanis who are involved in these attacks, then we need to find out why they are doing this so that we are better placed to dissuade this from such actions. Cheering making an ever bigger and deadlier enemy out of them serves no purpose.

The writer is a research fellow at the Oxford University. Email: mb294@hotmail.com